An embodiment relates generally to a service repair assistant system.
Vehicle repairs are conducted at vehicle repair stations by trained service technicians. Vehicle repairs are also often performed by owners or users of the vehicles. Both the service technicians as well as users utilize service procedures or manuals that inform the service technicians on the service steps in an attempt to identify a root cause of the fault and repair the fault. Service manuals are typically generated well in advance of the vehicle production and include step by step procedures for repairing the vehicle. Service manuals are utilized by both the service technician and users. However, during a life of the vehicle, repair procedures as well as diagnosis procedures are updated. The evolution of detecting faults and their root causes is an ongoing process that continues through warranty and engineering analysis in addition to service technician feedback after repairing vehicles. Moreover, despite the service manuals being somewhat comprehensive, the service procedures within the manuals are usually generic and place the onus on the service technician to interpret the diagnostic steps, gather and integrate symptoms, identify the root cause, and make the necessary repair. Chances for misinterpreting steps or skipping cross-system dependency tests are likely due to time constraints, costs, and the service technician thinking they can diagnose and repair the faults without fully analyzing the symptoms.
Oftentimes a user desires to repair a vehicle on their own, particularly when the vehicle is out of the warranty period and expenses must be incurred on by user. However, the user may not have expertise in diagnosing the problem, or an understanding how to correct the problem, or may have outdated service manuals.
A service technician, with detailed experience and knowledge of vehicles may utilize their background knowledge for diagnosing the problem. The drawback of this is that a technician may skip a recommended test that involves a less obvious repair and instead choose to replace a more conspicuous component, only to find out that the more conspicuous component did not correct the problem. Replacement of such a component, if it was incorrectly diagnosed as being the root cause the fault results in added expense for the original manufacturer by having to cover the cost of the incorrect repair.
What would be helpful is a system that not only allows users to understand the problem and the details of the repair associated with the problem, but also a system that diagnoses the root cause of the problem and put checks in place so that inappropriate repairs are not made on the vehicle.